79: Chapter 79 The Alliance is Initially Established, and the Herb Field Undergoes a Strange Change

The Alliance lamps were still lit, the firelight reflecting on the gravel of the cliff like a scattering of sparks.

Chen Wuwang did not move.

He stood in the center of the high slope; beneath his feet was a deep pit crushed by the remains of a colossus, and in his ears were the cheers of his clansmen.

But that sound seemed to come through a layer of water—blurry and distant.

His finger was still tapping—tap, tap—on the hilt of his dagger, the rhythm so steady it didn't seem like he was thinking, but rather as if he were waiting for something.

Deep within the Mechanical Prosthetic Eye, data streams rolled silently.

Suddenly, a whisper echoed in his Sea of Consciousness, devoid of emotion or echo, yet it pierced his nerves like a nail:

"Mutated spiritual plants have appeared in the Chen Family Medicinal Field."

Chen Wuwang's pupils constricted.

A blood-colored spirit pattern flashed and vanished in his right eye, then disappeared.

He took a slow breath, suppressing all his surging emotions within his chest.

His expression remained cold; he didn't even knit his brows, as if what he had just heard wasn't a warning, but someone casually mentioning after a meal, 'The water on the stove is boiling.'

But he turned around.

The movement was crisp, without the slightest hesitation. His long silver hair whipped in the night wind as his figure passed through the smoke that had yet to dissipate, heading straight for Chen Xiaodao's direction.

The crowd was still boisterous; a Li Family Youth was jumping and shouting while holding a Spirit-Guiding Pillar, the Xu Family Elder led the applause, and Deacon Lin was excitedly talking with a Zhao Clan Representative.

No one noticed that the Family Head had already left the center of the celebration, nor did anyone see him walking toward that young Sword Cultivator standing in front of the Dispatch Tower, his left arm emitting green smoke.

"Xiao Dao," he spoke, his voice not loud, but it cut through the surrounding noise like a knife through sheet metal.

Chen Xiaodao immediately regained his focus and stood straight: "Family Head."

"Immediately initiate Level 2 Alert."

Chen Wuwang stared at him, word by word, "Expand the Patrol Team to a three-shift rotation, install Runic Shields on the Spirit-Guiding Pillars, put all Mechas on standby, and ensure energy levels are no less than eighty percent."

Chen Xiaodao's eyes narrowed: "We just won... will the enemy come back?"

"It's not 'will come'," Chen Wuwang shook his head, "it's 'already moving'."

He didn't explain the matter of the Medicinal Field, nor did he intend to.

Only he could hear the System's instructions; what mutated spiritual plants meant was something no one could say for sure right now.

It could be a Heaven And Earth Treasure breaking through the soil, or it could be a poison seed buried by the Zerg Broodmother beginning to sprout.

He couldn't gamble, and even more so, he couldn't let the entire Alliance fall into chaos because of a piece of unknown news.

So he only said three words: "Trust me."

Chen Xiaodao fell silent for a moment.

He looked at Chen Wuwang's face—that claw mark running from the corner of his right eye to his jaw glowed dark red in the firelight, looking as if it were alive.

He knew how that wound came to be.

Five years ago in the ruins, this man had carried him on his back, carving a bloody path through a swarm of insects, leaving only severed limbs and broken bodies behind him.

At that time, he was only fourteen, still clutching half a wooden sword in his arms.

From that day on, whatever he said, he believed.

"Understood." Chen Xiaodao raised his hand in salute and turned to leave, "I will personally go to the Dispatch Tower to issue the order."

Chen Wuwang did not stop him.

He stood in place, watching that figure leap onto the high platform, the mechanical prosthetic limb tracing a faint blue light in the night.

He knew the subsequent events would move rapidly: the alert order would spread through the clan stations via Armbands, the Workshop Reserve Team would reinforce defensive bases overnight, and the Patrol Squads would complete their shift change within three quarters of an hour.

The Alliance's machinery had already begun to turn.

But he could not wait.

He raised his hand, and the Mechanical Prosthetic Eye automatically switched modes, a holographic map of the Family territory unfolding in his vision.

Densely packed data points flickered, representing the flow of Spiritual Qi, personnel distribution, and energy nodes.

And in the southeast, in a green area that was originally stable, a red dot was now pulsing—those were the coordinates of the Medicinal Field.

The red dot didn't flash urgently, but it was continuous, like an uneasy heart.

"I hope... it's not a catastrophe," he whispered, almost inaudibly.

In the next instant, he soared into the air.

With a tap of his toes on the gravel, he shot into the night sky like an arrow from a bow.

His silver hair pulled into a line in the wind, his black combat suit tight against his body, and his semi-transparent Psionic Armor glowed slightly, merging with the night.

During the flight, his finger was still tapping the dagger hilt, his mind quickly running through several possibilities:

—If it's a natural mutation, it means the Spiritual Qi concentration in the Medicinal Field has broken through the critical point, and future Medicinal Pill production could double;

—If it's external infiltration, it's very likely the handiwork of Mo Yuan or Blood Butcher, using the spiritual plants to release mental pollution;

—Worst case scenario, a Zerg Egg Core is hatching underground, preparing to corrode the entire Family's lifeblood from the roots...

Every one of them would be a handful to deal with.

He didn't dare think for too long. Thinking too much made it easy to cloud his judgment.

He only remembered one thing: "See it with my own eyes."

Three miles was but a moment for a Cultivator flying through the air.

Wind whistled past his ears, and below him, the cliff battlefield gradually receded; the firelight grew smaller, and the voices of people completely vanished.

In their place was the silhouette of a quiet field—that was the Chen Family's ancestral Medicinal Field, covering a hundred acres, divided into twelve zones, and planted with seventy-two types of primary spiritual plants.

Normally, this field was as quiet as an old farmer's private plot; no one would give it a second glance.

But now, it was glowing.

It wasn't firelight, nor was it the radiance of a Spirit Array being activated, but an extremely faint, almost transparent halo floating half an inch above the ridges, like morning mist yet with a slight ripple of distortion.

Chen Wuwang landed by the stone tablet at the edge of the field, landing soundlessly.

He wasn't in a hurry to enter.

First, he pulled up the scanning interface of his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye and activated Level 3 detection: Spiritual Qi fluctuations, life signals, abnormal frequencies.

The screen instantly popped up three sets of data, all exceeding the limits.

Especially the 'Mystic Yin Grass Area' in the middle, where the Spiritual Qi reading was seventeen times higher than normal, yet the life signal showed 'no individual present'.

Strange.

He crouched down and reached out to brush aside a cluster of Purple Leaf Grass at the edge. The soil was moist, but the color was dark, almost black.

He pinched a bit of soil and rubbed it between his fingers; he didn't smell rot, but instead a faint sweet metallic scent, like rust mixed with honey.

"Something's wrong," he murmured.

Just then, the System once again whispered:

"In three quarters of an hour, the mutation will spread to the main vein."

Chen Wuwang suddenly looked up.

In the distance, at the center of the Medicinal Field, that century-old 'Nine-Rotation Soul-Returning Tree' swayed slightly.

The leaves didn't move, and the trunk didn't shake, but the entire tree's shadow suddenly shifted by half an inch.

But there was no moon tonight; where did the shadow come from?

He gritted his teeth, gripped his dagger, and stepped into the Medicinal Field.

The moment his foot touched the ground, a slight tremor came from beneath, as if something were crawling underground, not fast, but converging toward the main vein.

He no longer hesitated.

"If there is no message within three quarters of an hour, seal the perimeter according to the 'Ash Contingency'," he said into the Communication Jade Talisman and casually inserted it into a crack in the stone tablet.

Then, he walked quickly toward that Soul-Returning Tree.

With every step, the data in his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye jumped.

Spiritual Qi disorder intensified.

Life signals began to show intermittent readings.

The frequency of underground vibrations increased.

When he was thirty feet from the tree, he finally saw the source of the anomaly—

That old tree, which should have been motionless, actually had a crack slowly opening at its base.

Inside, there were no wood fibers or soil, but a mass of slowly pulsating, ghostly blue-glowing tissue, like a heart, or some unnamed organ.

Even more bizarrely, a line of text appeared on the surface of that tissue:

"[Welcome back, Host.]"